Braden Mann would love to stay in Philly. The Eagles have a decision to make on the free agent punter

A punter is like someone’s breath — you likely only notice it if it stinks.

The Eagles have taken whiffs of poor punters in the past. Just a few years ago, one of the team’s biggest concerns entering the offseason was Arryn Siposs, who struggled in Super Bowl LVII with his botched punt in the fourth quarter that contributed to the Eagles’ loss.

The Eagles don’t have to have that concern anymore. Siposs’ successor, Braden Mann, is fresh off his third season with the Eagles, from which he emerged as the most consistent of the team’s specialists. Mann registered a franchise-best 49.9 yards per punt in 2025 and has averaged 49.5 yards in his Eagles career, the best mark in team history.

Will he have a chance to continue that dominance? Mann, 28, is one of the team’s 19 pending unrestricted free agents. On Monday, even with the season’s demise still fresh, he wasn’t hiding his hopes for the future.

“I’ve loved my time in Philly, and hopefully that continues,” Mann said. “It’s just been a blast for me, personally, just kind of working my craft and seeing what happens. Excited to see any opportunities here or anything that comes.”

A Houston native, Mann said he has spent the last few offseasons living in Dallas, the hometown of his wife, Kylie. He prefers training in Dallas in the spring because of the windy conditions, which are standard in the Northeast during the football season.

The veteran punter noted that purposely practicing on bad-weather days in the offseason translated to better punts during the season, especially in Philly and on the road vs. Buffalo. Mann had to punt through it all — rain, wind, and snow.

“I worked really hard to try and improve on punting in less-than-ideal conditions, which obviously we had a lot of this year,” Mann said. “I used to go out on good-weather days, and now I purposely go out in the offseason on days where it’s raining or cold or windy. I think it’s really helped me, just being able to control the ball a bit better.”

Mann ranked sixth in the league this season in yards per punt, with his longest attempt hitting 70 yards in Week 2 against the Kansas City Chiefs. But just 27.8% of his punts were downed inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, below the league average of 39.3%.

That’s not all on Mann, but he noted that he wants to get better at some of those deeper punts this offseason.

“Going forward, just trying to improve on maybe some of the weird punts,” Mann said. “Like the ones where you get really close to the end zone or trying to get aggressive with pinning the other team deep and not getting too aggressive, I guess, is the best way of putting it.”

Mann has a special perspective, joining the Eagles during a trying 2023 season and reaching the pinnacle with a Super Bowl last year. After another early playoff exit, the punter acknowledged the team has the potential to rebound once more. He called the 2025 team “one of the closest groups I’ve been with” in his six-year NFL career, which began with the New York Jets.

“I think it’s just the time we spent,” Mann said. “I think everybody’s wanting to reach toward the end goal, but you’ve got to enjoy the days on the way there. Even last year, we went so long and it wasn’t so much the actual Super Bowl. It was the daily stuff to get there that made us so tight. So it was kind of similar this year. I think it’s a culture thing, which has been really good here.”

Once the dust settles on the season, Howie Roseman will determine whether Mann will continue to be a part of that culture for years to come.